Vapor electric apparatus.



P. C. HEWITT.

VAPOR ELECTRlC APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 19. 1912.

1 ,1 97,629. Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR A TTOR A ITT, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Ringwood Manor, county of Pasmm coornx nnwrrr,

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varoa nm'c'rarc mm.

Application filed September 19, 1912. Serialim'WLfl'I.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER Coornn HEW- saic, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vapor Electric Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to vapor electric apparatus of the well known Cooper Hewitt type comprising an exhausted container or envelop provided with positive and negative electrodes insulated from one another with respect to the container, the negative electrode being composed of material of such a nature that the particles thereof will reunite physically and electrically on contact with one another after separation under the conditions obtaining within the container.

Devices of the above character can be arranged to perform a number of different functions, such for instance, as rectifying an alternating current or the production of rays having various characteristics and wave lengths.

The-present invention relates more particularly'to apparatus designed for the production of ultra-violet rays which can be usefully employed. for sterilizing and for promoting chemical and physical actions in liquid and solid substances.

- The efficiency of a vapor electric apparatus as a source of ultra-violet rays is found to depend to a great extent on the material of which the negative electrode is composed when its vapor serves to carry the current, and according to the present invention I employ as a negative electrode certainmetals, the vapors of which when utilized having well defined wave lengths within the above limits, and another metal which is also suitable for the p rp e s cramm- ,It will be midrsaod'ftha a. 811

Specification or Letterslatent, f Patented Sept.

of these metals for mercury, "whicli'fisthe metal commonly em'ployed in va or electric apparatus as hitherto constructe will,-gen erally speaking, necessitate an alterationin the conditions under which the; apparatus 7 is operated owing to the different -va or tensions of the metals employed accordmg to my mvention, but the generalnatureiof the operation of 'the apparatus is otherwise the samev as when mercury is employed as 85 the metal of which the negative :electrode 1s composed.

In the drawings herein is shown a device well suited to the production of abundant ultra violet rays by the useof the system' '70 1 herein described.

.1 is an exhausted container having a chamber, 3, at one end and a mercury electrode, 2, with a lead, 4, adjacent thereto and also having at the other end a recess'con- 8, with the lead 4. The electrode2 will act as an anode and the electrode 5 as a cathode. As the passage of curreht through, the device vaporizes the thallium or caesium, this material gives 01f ultra violet rays under the influence of the current which rays may be utilized for various purposes. In starting the device use may be made of the starting band, 7, as is well known in the art.

As the metals above mentioned are solid 90.

at ordinary temperatures theapparatus may be either started into operation by impressing a momentary high potential thereon, or the apparatus may be first heated so as to render the metal of the negative electrode liquid, after. which the apparatus maybe started in the same manner as a mercury vapor apparatus.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is 1. A source of ultra violet rays comprising an exhausted container, an anode and a cathodetherein, the latter being constituted of thallium, and means whereby current may be conveyed within the container including starting means.

tution 5s 2. A source of ultra-vielet rays commising an exhausted container, an anode and a. cathode therein, and. thallium gas or vapor only between the anode and the ca'lzhede.

3. A source of ultra-violet rays eemyrie ing an exhausted container, an enecle en cathode therein, the Ietser being eons'situated of thallium.

Signed at New York in the county of New York and State of New Yerk this 10 18th day of September A. D. 1912.

PETER COQPER HEWK'ET.

Witnesses:

WM. H. CAPEL, Tfios. BROWN. 

